Beer: Reviews & Ratings

Bourbon Barrel Stout is a great tasting beer. I prefer the beer taste from the tap instead of bottled. When you open the bottle you smell bourbon. You can taste the bourbon, but it is not overwhelming. You should try this beer (228 characters)

T- Big flavoful stout with notes of vanilla, oak, chocolate, roasted coffee, and bourbon. Nice balance between sweet and roasty, the bourbon notes are not overdone and complements the stout very nicely

O- A great barrel aged stout that is very drinkable. Hardly a trace of booziness in this beer, just some nice warming. Really flavorful and a great mouthfeel. I have not had a ton of bourbon barrel aged beers but many I have had really overdo the bourbon but this beer strikes a great balance. (867 characters)

Best bourbon barrel stout I've had. It's my 'go to' when I feel like a bourbon barrel stout. The bourbon flavor is not over the top like some (New Holland Dragon Milk for example). It's smooth and easy to drink. You can taste the bourbon, but it doesn't overwhelm the stout. I recommend it to anyone. (300 characters)

A:Pours a very deep brown, settling into an opaque black. The head is almost nonexistent for mine, but the bubbles that surface are tan and surprisingly large, although if you can generate the head, it's much, much more flavorful. It doesn't flow as thick as one would hope, but it's more viscous than a traditional porter.

S: Aroma is exquisite: sweet dark chocolate, hints of caramel and bourbon, bits of coffee and molasses, lots of scent and very welcoming.

T/M: Has a low to medium amount of carbonation with the bourbon very well balanced between caramel, chocolate, and coffee notes. Some slight roasted malts and just a touch of bitterness finish it off.

This is a very good bourbon barrel beer and likely the best year round bourbon barrel on the market. (797 characters)

a thick black pour with a slight bit of head which quickly dissipated. smells of delicious sweet chocolate, hint of vanilla and bourbon, molasses. the bourbon smells really subtle, which is honestly relieving for a change. OOH YEAH! a delicious coffee/chocolate flavor blast up front followed by a nice mellow vanilla bourbon bite. a really nicely done stout, i honestly cannot for the life of me understand the average rating.. this is one of my favorites so far. nice bitter dark chocolate flavor lingers for most of the drink and every gassy burp brings up hints of vanilla. really loving this one. medium in bod with moderate carbonation.. light for a heavy bourbon barrel stout, but honestly nice for a change. a very nice easy drinking stout mellow on the bourbon, but it's still very noticeable. really like this one a lot. (830 characters)

The beer pours a dark brown color with a tan head. The aroma is very nice and quite complex. I get a lot of bourbon as well as some chocolate, vanilla, maple and dark fruit. The flavor is just as complex. The chocolate and roasted malt come through very strong, but the flavor also has all of the components you expect from a bourbon barrel aged beer. I get some bourbon whiskey notes as well as some maple, oak and vanilla. Medium to thick mouthfeel and low to medium carbonation. A very nice barrel-aged stout. Glad I got to try this one. (582 characters)

I think I'm liking this more than the other reviewers here. Perhaps there is a lot of variability in the bottling? Or perhaps I am a fan of the style?

It poured black into the Sam Adams glass with just a trace of a brown rim. Very thin head despite an aggressive pour. A ring of foam lasted the whole way down.

I could smell the stout even before bringing it to my nose. Coffee and dark chocolate on the nose.

The flavor was also chocolate and coffee along with some roasted nuances and a mineral presence on the finish. Interestingly, as the beer warmed a bit, I started to get a distinct bourbon and oak flavor.

I am surprised it is at 8.6%ABV as the alcohol is well hidden.

In the mouth I found it rich and a little creamy with adequate carbonation but not too much to produce any adverse scrubbing of the palate.

m - Medium to full body and moderate carbonation. No real heat, and pretty nice and thick.

o - Overall I liked this one a lot; I was pleasantly surprised and liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Lots of chocolate and vanilla and some nice light bourbon, this is a good BBA stout that comes in 12 oz. bottles and isn't too heavy or high ABV. Would definitely have it again. (1,137 characters)

T: Here the bourbon makes its presence known, lurking in the background as a caramelly alcoholic sweetness. I detect light smokey notes as the slightly bitter coffee flavour takes over and carries me out to the aftertaste.

M: Nothing special here, move along.

D: This is a pretty tasty beer, but I don't foresee me drinking more than one of these at a time. Highly recommended. (622 characters)

Poured from a 12oz bottle into a Duck Rabbit snifter. A thin layer of khaki film settled on top of a brown/black body. Poor lacing...the foam cannot be forced to cling to the glass.

Hmmm...nice aromas from this one! Cocoa, cream, espresso and roasted malts all sit on top of an oaky, bourbon backbone.

The taste has a ton of chocolate up front which turns into a sweet, almost milky cream center. The end finds some coffee/malt characters which give it a nice, roasted finish. You can pick up some of the bourbon flavors in the finis...and they last through the aftertaste.

Medium mouth feel, creamy yet slick with moderate carbonation.

This is drinkable for sure...not as complex or strongly flavored as other BA stouts, but worth a try. (742 characters)

I look at the reviews and it seems like people can't make up their mind one says it's this one says that. another says it tastes like this another says it tastes like that.

well here you go... I was surprised with this brew as the guy at Total Wine recommend it to me. it definitely pores black and it has a thin head. it smells of bourbon, not overly strong. it is slightly low on the carbonation scale, and has a slightly watery taste. this stout is not going to blow your socks off, but it is by no means as bad as these reviews are saying.

definitely not as strong as what I would like the Bourbon flavor. I would definitely buy this again. try it you'll probably like it (678 characters)

A-Poured from a twelve ounce bottle into a Duvel tulip. Very dark brown to black with a thick and tight two finger head that dissipates in about a minute or so. Moderate lacing left on the glass.

S-Roasted barley and Bourbon. Not as much Bourbon in the nose as I had anticipated.

T-The Bourbon flavor comes through nicely but isn't overpowering. It comes more on the back of the pallet. Up front you get a lot of the chocolate malt flavors and a little bit of hop bitterness.

M-Nice and smooth, perfectly carbonated. Enough to coat the pallet but not really overly heavy.

D-Probably one of the easier drinking barrel aged stouts around. I'm not sure of the ABV but there is really very little alcohol presence detected. Overall a well done Bourbon barrel stout from Bluegrass. (781 characters)

12oz bottle into a pint glass. Bottled on April, 2013 punched on the side.

pours a pitch black color with a half inch beige head that quickly dissipates. Slight bourbon on the nose, but not as strong as I would have anticipated. Taste is very smooth. Bourbon flavor is apparent but the alcohol is quite subdued. Would guess in the 6-7 % range. It's not as strong as I first anticipated. Good feel, medium bodied with low carbonation. Not as thick as I intended it would be either.

Overall this is a pretty easy drinking stout with a touch of bourbon flavor. I'd say the flavor was added instead of it being aged in bourbon barrels like most other beers. It's very easy to drink and isn't necessarily a sipper. I'd recommend it. (730 characters)

Poured from a bottle into a goblet. Black (it's a stout, surprise, surprise), with very little to no head. The aroma was nice, but very subtle. Like some other reviews, I would've appreciated a stronger hint of bourbon, but it definitely was not offensive by any means. The taste reminded me a bit of something oak-barrel aged (I.E. vanilla notes), not sure if that's the case or not. It was a bit watery, for lack of a better word (not as creamy as I'd like), but overall, pretty solid stout, one of the better ones I've had in awhile, would definitely drink again. (566 characters)

I have to say that this exceeded my expectations. I didn't know what to expect, but I had a taste for the style. I had a KBS recently, but since I couldn't get any more, I went for a similar brew.

I transported this by car for a couple hours and then barely got it cold. It sort of shot a spurt of CO2 and when I poured it there was a huge, foamy head. The head was pretty thick, but the bubbles were a bit big. The aroma that went with all that fizz is pretty good. It's malty with a little bourbon smell.

The taste is a nice roasty stout with good balance. Just enough hops to know there is some there, and the bourbon flavor is subdued, but definitely present. The aftertaste is slightly boozy. Overall, the mouthfeel is very fizzy, but this may be my fault.

This is not nearly as complex or thick a sipper as better examples of the style, but it was definitely worth a try. Although it is nearly as boozy as the true imperial examples, it does not have that fullness. (975 characters)

Hard pour into a DFH Tulipish glass, 2 fingers of light brown head. Very sweet malt smell, a bit of caramel, a bit of wood, and a bit of astringency.

Malt is well balanced with a dark roast flavor- not nearly as sweet as I expected it to be. Very pleasant dark chocolate and roast coffee aftertaste. MF is not particularly strong, pleasingly creamy- lending to make this a medium drinkable beer.

I've had a lot of luck in the last few porters/stouts that I've had the pleasure of tasting, and this is a pretty nice stout. Much like the most recent porters I've tried, this succeeds in that it doesn't try too hard to be overpowering in any sense of the word. (716 characters)

Appearance: Pours black coffee in color with a very minimal brown head that dissipates quickly but leaves some floating foam. Many bubbles on the inside sides of the glass.

Smell: Roasted malt dominates, but this definitely has a bourbon-esque aroma to it.

Taste: Begins with a sweetened coffee and molasses flavors that has notes of woodiness, finishing with bittersweet roasted malt and a bourbon hint.

Mouthfeel: Heavier body with balanced carbonation and a dry finish.

Drinkability: This beer is pretty good, and very drinkable for its ABV, but it lacks depth to make it very good. Not quite worth its price tag, but still solid and worth a try, if only once. (735 characters)

This beer pours a very very dark brown to the point that it is opaque in the glass. There is little to no head to speak of the beige foam that was initially on the surface didn't stay around too long. I perhaps have allowed the beer to get to cold as the aroma doesn't appear to be as bold as I would have anticipated initially. A bit of time helped, as the aromas that came out were rather pleasant. There is a great deal of vanilla on the nose with oak portions. Hints of coffee waft into the aroma as well, surprisingly I can smell no bourbon as of yet. The palate is rather woodsy upfront, but the vanilla helps it to fade back and go down easy. The aftertaste has some bitterness due to the late arrival of the coffee flavor to my palate. I wish I'd gotten a little touch of bourbon in this beer, but I am sadly out of luck. This is a good beer to sit down and drink and enjoy. On the lighter end of the spectrum for it's style, yet delicious and robust as it should be. I would recommend this beer. I found it to be quite nice. (1,121 characters)